Battle over Yellowstone
The Battle over Yellowstone took place not long after the clashes between the Terra Concord and the United States Remnant at the Caerus Genetics site. The Battle The Terra Concord's re-positioning of their sky fleet after the fighting at the Caerus Genetics site afforded them a temporary peace while the USR searched for their new location. A plan was devised to search for and strike USR ground targets with the bulk of the fleet, while White, Liveth, and Welland were sent back to the Skytower in a small group of one MATC and a few LATCs. Leaning heavily on the Aljashe and his Sultanate forces for support in place of the previously planned CAF units, several groups entered the Skytower all at once, mostly consisting of the insectoids paired with scant numbers of Valkyr and ATLAS soldiers. Whites previous knowledge of the Skytowers insides were used to make the process of critical asset excavation much simpler. She and her team relayed a live visual feed and constant updates back to Laurent and the Vesuvius while the operation was underway. White and her team only reached a first couple rooms, until a DvC from the CIC reported to Laurent that Paige Hatfield was on her way to him with something to report. Apparently, Paige had seen a small observer drone outside her window only minutes before coming to Laurent. Despite the HATCs, constant radar scans, it appeared these drones were either too small or specially equipped to elude these precautions, and it was only by chance Paige saw one. Laurent ordered the Vesuvius to enter the first stage of alert, focusing on heightened radar scans, USR frequency jamming, electronic disturbances and moving all auxiliary gunner crew to AA positions. The three HATCs were then ordered on an evasive east-bound course and began to move that way. The Vesuvius took the center lead of the formation, while the Denali and Rainier Courser Class HATCs flanked it from the North and South. It is then that the Denali and Rainier began to register first radar contact with airborne blips, fast approaching. From the South-West, a couple dozen jets at Mach 2 were making straight for the formation. Coordinated with the South-West jet readings, more readings registered inbound from the North-West. Hundreds of smaller craft were registered, moving slower than the jets, albeit gaining on the formation. It became quickly apparent that the jets were ignoring the Denali and Rainier, soaring past and heading straight for the Vesuvius. The jet fighters, equipped with payloads of hull-breaching missiles, flew haphazardly and without care for their own safety, neglecting the threat of the TCs scrambled Marshal fighters and instead focusing on puncturing the Vesuvius's hull in as many places as possible. While the USR once again took many aerial casualties, many jets were able to offload their payload, and once they ran out of ordnance, proceeded to fly as evasively as possible to distract the Marshal fighters and Vesuvius AA. The fleet of USR Drones then emerged from the North-West, approaching fast on the Vesuvius now adorned in a dozen places with hull breaches. Hundreds of drones descended upon the HATC, though, rather than combat-equipped drones firing upon it, most of these drones observed were ones the Concord had not yet seen, cargo drones painted black and white and carrying several black and white checkered boxes aboard. The Marshal fighters and formidable Vesuvius AA defense grid easily took them down in droves, but there were simply too many drones to shoot down before they reached the Vesuvius. Laurent, anticipating some kind of boarding, instructed soldiers not operating parts of the ship to prepare to repel invaders. Several drones flew into the hull breaches and began to offload, eject, and shoot several black and white checkered boxes all over the Vesuvius's interior. The brunt of this was focused on the Vesuvius's CIC, it appeared, but the entire ship was subjected to this. The final transmission from a DELTA DvC in the CIC relayed that the black and white checkered boxes were to be fired upon, before this transmission cut. Assuming the black and white boxes to be explosives. General Laurent ordered a complete evacuation of the Vesuvius as soon as he saw them. This caused a temporary increase in the panic of the TC aboard Vesuvius, interrupting otherwise semi-organized defensive measures. Near the forward operations deck, or FOD, where Laurent was stationed, the black and white checkered boxes suddenly erupted, tossing chunks of plastic-like material about the place. In the place of each box suddenly unfolded dozens of robotic soldiers. They rose to the height of 5'8, also made with some kind of plastic material, black on one half of their body and white on the other. Their right arms had one of two variants of a weapon built into them, pipe rifles and scatter-guns, which fired simple metal slugs. With rounded heads, thin chassis, and singular optical light, the robots began to march on the TC personnel as soon as they unfolded from their transport boxes. The Vesuvius was quickly full of hundreds of hostile boarders, which marched continuously ahead. The robotics seemed to march in sync, and would occasionally chatter synthetic, pre-fabricated lines of dialogue as they neared their opponents. PBFF weapons by and large easily cut through the simple robotics, melting them or causing their plastic-like chassis to shatter via impact. Enforcer armor largely repelled the robotics simple weapons. Concord causalities, however, began to mount when the robotics sheer numbers allowed them to approach TC positions and open fire at point-blank range. Concord soldiers found themselves running out of thermal magazines or causing their weapons to overheat and break down trying to keep up with the sheer number of robotics. The previous evac order from Laurent caused Concord personnel to mostly abandon previously planned defensive chokes, and instead find themselves caught in less defensible positions, having left behind things like mobile gun turrets in the hallways they had fled from. The fight carried hall to hall, room to room. From the FOD, Laurent and the crew there we're able to repel the robotic onslaught, largely due to the use of a grenade and the two PDW weapons present. Rejoining several DELTA who had been holding a position under the FOD, Laurent and the grouped force of CAF got organized and established a firm foothold, blasting through several dozen robotics and slogging their way toward the CIC on the other end of the Vesuvius. Meanwhile, the heaviest fighting was taking place on the Vesuvius flight-deck, as the robots drone-carriers were able to simply dump volleys of robotics straight down onto the deck after the initial attack had distracted the crew and several defensive measures that otherwise would have prevented this. With no real clear lines of battle drawn, minimal cover aside from LATCs that failed to take off and personal DELTA shields, and anti-infantry turrets that quickly drove themselves into overheating, the flight-deck battle was a losing situation for the Concord until the arrival of Valkyr support which Laurent ordered flown in from the Rainier and Denali. The Bastion units heavy armor was near impervious to the robotics metal slug weapons, and, even though they quickly exhausted their ammunition, the Bastion Cannons were able to carve footholds through the robotics within seconds of the Bastions arrival through sheer rate of fire, allowing the remaining flight-deck personnel to regain control of the situation. Two levels below the CIC, the armory had quickly been flocked to and fortify by several members of the CAF. The soldiers there, mostly lower in rank, deferred to the command of GDN Hatfield, who organized a majority of the fortifications and tactics as the group repelled the army of robotics. With a bulk of ammunition and extra weapons behind them, the group stationed in the armory had no issue staying put and laying down a stream of fire constant enough to stem the tide of robotics, saturating the space outside the armory with shattered and molten plastic material. The group suffered few casualties as a result, and eventually Hatfields force from the armory connected with Laurent's group after they had fought all the way from the FOD. Hatfield and Laurent were afforded a moment to catch their breath.They made their way to the entry staircase of the CIC, which Laurent deduced must have been overrun. This was confirmed by the occasional robotic servo echoing down from the CIC. Laurent and Hatfield discussed a strategy of breaching and retaking the CIC at length, affording the robotics assumed above a lot of time to continue doing whatever it was they had been, before finally going up the stairs. The advance was halted by a lone Concord Communications Officer, who stood rigidly, absent of company. She was visibly afraid and told Laurent and Hatfield everything was fine in the CIC, and they should depart. When asked to identify herself, the Comms officer looked to her side, then answered herself as "Abigail Stevens." Hatfield and Laurent knew something was amiss, and tried to advance up the stairs, shouting their false departure to try and fool the robotics who surely must have had a gun trained on the CO. Eventually, Hatfield and Laurent threw smoke grenades and ushered the CO to run forth, and she did so, hysterical and reluctant, later explaining the robots said if the CO tried anything, they would kill the other prisoners they had held within the CIC. Two robotics revealed themselves then at the top of the staircase, not firing their weapons at the clearly unarmored and thus vulnerable Hatfield, but simply staring down, weapons raised. Laurent had an EMP thrown at the top of the staircase, which stunned the robotics, but only very briefly. The EMP caused Hatfield to falter and fall down the stairs, sustaining minor injuries. Laurent ordered the following DELTA units to force their way up the steps, shields raised, bastion following, into the CIC. The advance however was again stopped as the DELTA laid eyes on that which prevented them from engaging the robotics present. The robotics had stationed themselves all over the CIC, standing behind guard rails and terminals, weapons oriented toward the entrance. A carrier drone filled to the brim with Concord PBFFs, helmets, and terminals was seen departing out of a breach in the CIC, which the robots had likely been doing for some time. On the second floor of the CIC, and in the central depression that housed the largest array of Command terminals and computers, stood more Concord prisoners, each with a robotic arm-gun pressed firmly against their backs. Laurent took head of the Concord formation, and was met with a singular robotic addressing him in a crudely simple and toneless synthetic voice. The robotic proposed a deal to Laurent; the robots would choose two prisoners to take with them, and Laurent could have the rest. After an exchange of robotic business lingo and theatrical posturing from Laurent; the proposed deal was eventually accepted. Laurent revealed aloud that he figured out the identity of the robots origin, Elkros. The robotics by and large dismissed Laurents threats and poetic taunting, holding their end of the deal to the letter. They took with them a Concord ATLAS DvC, and the leading deck officer of the Vesuvius, loaded them onto a drone transport, and then proceeded to load themselves onto simple looking cage-like drone carriers, folding themselves down into small sizes and busing out of the CIC in groups. While the Concord suffered several dead, wounded, and many missing from the attack and its complications, the Vesuvius itself mainly suffered only breaches to the hull, as the robotics, jets, and drones seemed to have other priorities than targeting critical systems and assets, or at least did later on as the tide of the battle shifted to Concord favor. Despite their materiel losses, the engagement could be called a tactical victory for the USR and Elkros. Their robotics were able to depart with a small cache of Concord technology, data stores, and two prisoners. The panic caused by Laurent's initial evac order also opened the possibility of further Concord prisoners being taken, as those who evacuated early and did not wind up in the hands of the Denali or Rainier almost surely crashed into USR territory below, isolated and in small number. The robotics also did a fairly severe amount of damage to Vesuvius support staff. In the aftermath, the Concord fleet drifted further east and concealed themselves to the best of their ability, reassessing strategy, recovering from the assault, and repairing the Vesuvius. Fast moving teams of United States Ground Forces moved on Concord crash sites, capturing survivors who surrendered and killing those who refused to do so. Casualties United States Remnant * 2 F-14A "Tomcat" fighters fielded. 0 disabled. 1. destroyed. 1 Routed. * 8 F-15B "Eagle" fighters fielded. 0 disabled. 6 destroyed. 2 Routed. * 40 F-16A "Fighting Falcon" fighters fielded. 1 Disabled. 37 Destroyed. 2 Routed. * 30 ElkR-T5 “Lincoln” Cargo/Transport Carrier drones fielded. 0 disabled. 22 Destroyed. 8 Routed. * 10 ElkR-T10 “Hamilton” Infantry fighter drones fielded. 0 disabled. 6 Destroyed. 4 Routed. * 45 ElkR-T20 “Jackson” air-to-air fighter drones fielded. 0 disabled. 39 Destroyed. 6 routed. * 15 ElkR-T50 “Grant” rocket drones fielded. 0 disabled. 13 Destroyed. 2 Routed. * ~200 ElkR-C3 "Pawn" carrier drones fielded. 0 disabled. 132 Destroyed. 68 Routed. * ~2500 ElkR-C3 "Pawn" ground robotics fielded. 0 disabled. ~2300 Destroyed. ~200 Routed. Terra Concord * 1 Cyclone Class HATC fielded. 0 disabled. 0 destroyed. * 2 Courser Class HATCs fielded. 0 disabled. 0 destroyed. * 60 Marshal Class LATC fighters fielded. 12 Disabled. 5 Destroyed. * 450 CAF DELTA soldiers fielded. 116 Wounded. 61 Killed. 0 Routed. * 200 ATLAS/AERO/HORIZON soldiers fielded. 83 Wounded. 39 Killed. 0 Routed. ~1 Captured. * 300 Communications, Logistics, Support Staff involved. 132 Wounded. 76 Killed. 0 Routed. ~1 Captured. * 100 Valkyr soldiers fielded. 17 Wounded. 6 Killed. 0 Routed. * ~50+/- various Concord personnel missing in action and unaccounted for. Category:Conflicts